Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Peter!

This poor man always gets a little left behind because Father's Day falls right after LP's birthday. There was no time for breakfast in bed this morning before church, so we had a little Father's Day picnic in the garden with left over party food at lunchtime instead. The kids had all made Daddy something special - LP had made the tie, Doodlebug painted a canvas and Turtle made a special drawing.

They all came to pose for photos one by one.... by birth order oddly enough.

party preparations...

tissue paper flowers, butterflies both large and small

tooth fairy boxes to decorate and head pieces to wear

and a specially grown chupa chup tree to eat

I think we are just about ready...... except for the birthday cake.....!

My new garden...

Thanks, Gardening Fairy!

Spot the odd thing in the photo....

No... I'm not talking about Turtle.... although he is not looking his normal self in the photo. Spot the opened but uneaten bag of jelly-snakes on his lap! When I took the photo it had sat there for 2 hours.... obviously something wrong!
The poor boy has a mild case of pneumonia which has made him feel very unwell for a couple of days, to the point of turning down the lemonade and icecream I tried to tempt his appetite with.
Today he got some antibiotics which should hopefully set him right in a few days.

farewell, mummy - welcome back Little Possum!

After a week of the bandages, we are so happy to see that the treatment was successful. LP's skin has improved all over and she is not as itchy anymore. Hopefully this is it, unless we have another flare-up. We spent the day at the children's hospital being reviewed and having tests, but there was some time for fun in between. The hospital has a wonderful playroom where LP had a "hand facepaint" (as LP put it) and did some colouring. Later we visited the library where we read stories on the appropriately named "the Mem Fox storytelling couch". We crossed paths with many very sick children who were obviously in hospital for a longer term visit, and I felt blessed to watch my little girl skipping around the hospital, and to be able to bring her home with me again at the end of the day.

Beware the mummy!

This is the week of our wet bandaging treatment for LP's eczema. It was supposed to be an in-patient thing, but when we arrived at the children's hospital, they offered us the "Hospital at Home" scheme instead so after the initial assessment and treatment at the hospital we left the wombat room and headed for home.

LP was such a little trooper, standing patiently while all the bandaging (3 layers) was going on... and she still managed to give me a kiss afterwards!

The nurses will come to our house to do the dressings this week, and we get to have all the comforts of home. LP is a little disappointed, she rather liked the look of the playrooms at the hospital. But, we are doing well at home.

Penrith Lakes

On Saturday we (minus Doodlebug) headed out to Penrith for a bit of an outing, driving through Windsor and Richmond on the way. We should have continued on to the Blue Mountains, but will save that for another time. In Penrith we found the lakes, with the Olympic rowing lake and white water park. There's a biketrack all around the lake which is 5 km around and we were interested to see how LP would go for that distance. Easy peasy... must be all that rope skipping she's doing :)
I really should follow her exercise regime! Running everywhere, never sitting still, skipping rope at any given opportunity....

Mem Fox, books and more

Yesterday I went to Total Learning's annual showcase. This is where the new catalogue is introduced and we get to see all the new products that are coming in. (And.... there are some fantastic new books and products coming!!!) . It is a treat to attend, as there are usually some interesting presentations and speakers. This year was extra special as in addition to the head of Dorling Kindersley Australia, we had Mem Fox visiting. She is one of my favourite children's book authors and many of the books she has written are favourites of my children. Turtle loves "Sleepy Bears" still and LP loves all of them. Mem read several of her books out loud to us and you could have heard a pin drop, the room was so quiet. It was like I heard the stories for the first time. Amazing.

Mem Fox also champions early reading. I first read her book "Reading Magic" a couple of years ago and found several inspirational sections about the importance of reading to our children and the effect this has on their development. There are also some great tips for making our reading aloud even better. Mem Fox talked more about this at the showcase, she talked about the importance of giving happiness through reading. When we read to our children daily, we affect their hearts as well as their minds. This is something that I have always believed, because I can see it in my children. I have been reading to my children daily since they were babies. Now we see the fruits of this in many ways, my children love books and reading, and I get reports from their teachers that they are using wonderfully expressive language in their written work. (I credit Enid Blyton with many of their current adjectives and superlatives....... )

It was a great privilege to be able to meet this amazing woman and to thank her for all those wonderful books we love to read. I had brought LP's copy of "Where is the green sheep" with me, and Mem Fox kindly autographed it for her.

YooHoo! Tooth Fairy!

This is the pose and facial expression that Turtle wanted me to capture as he celebrates the loss of yet another one of his babyteeth. (he's holding the tooth but it's not very visible)

I loved this

School holiday fun

This post has been a while coming, but during the school holiday I didn't seem to get my head around it. We had a great holiday. It was wonderful to have a rest from the schoolruns and sports training. We enjoyed long leisurely mornings when all the kids came in for a snuggle until the hungerpangs became too strong to ignore.

The cousins managed to get together - this only happens a couple of times of year, and so it's great when we can manage it. They are all very close in age and play beautifully together.

I am very happy for their fun relationship since I grew up without a single cousin. I am from a country with a birthrate of 1.4. (This made me 1 and my brother 0.4 I suppose...... :)

But, I digress..

The Powerhouse Museum was a big hit as well. We had lots of fun pushing buttons, pulling levers and seeing some fun exhibits. Afterwards LP declard that she wants to have 2 jobs when she grows up. She wants to be a teacher and a builder. Apparently the hardhat, wheelbarrows and crane in Zoe's playhouse inspired her.

The most favourite activity was the visits to the BMX track. The last time we went we had told LP she was not allowed on it until her training wheels were off. Since then we hadn't been there and then there was the broken elbow. But literally within hours of the cast coming off, the bikes were loaded into the car. (though I'm not sure that was what the orthopaedic surgeon had recommended for the recovery).

In the first shot, I thought Doodlebug was actually going to do a forward flip, but thankfully the rear wheel made contact with the ground again.

Jake also enjoyed running on the bumps.

Turtle bread

Turtle is Mr Carb.... he loves his pasta, potatoes and bread. He's not too fond of the stuff that goes with the carbs, like sauces, vegetables or sandwich fillings and will eat things plain. So when I made breadrolls I thought I'd better make one a little more exciting since it was going to be eaten on its own. And so the Turtle roll came to be......
it had a very short life......

Trainspotting

A blast from the past for MOTH and one very excited and happy Turtle as MOTH's old trainset was unearthed in the attic. Since Turtle is the keenest train-fan of the younger generation he will take possession of it (or at least get to share it with MOTH.....). Turtle has plans of mountains, tunnels and buildings while MOTH is busy planning the electronic gadgetry like controllers. Between the two of them with their limitless imagination and electronic know-how (and not to mention Mummy's papier-mache expertise.....), they will eventually transform this bit of MDF and track into something quite exciting!

constructive play

Today after soccer Doodlebug had Best Buddy over for a play. Being kindred spirits they spent a considerable time playing on their Nintendo DS'es and then online at "Club Penguin" before I confiscated all electronic gadgetry and sent them outside to play.

Doodlebug, BB and Turtle went to the top of the garden to construct a "base" for their activities, and they had a great time doing what I love to see the most... imaginative and creative play.

It seems that they have so many opportunities to attach themselves to screens of various types, making room and time for unstructured imaginative play sadly requires conscious effort. It seems like a contradiction, doesn't it, to consciously arrange unstructured play..... But I would love for my children to have a balance in everything.

I'm amazed.... simply amazed

I didn't watch "Australia's got talent", but caught a glimpse of the Grand Final when this young man was playing. Blew me away, that's all I can say!! Very worthy winner of the competition, I thought.

Tonsils, PCs and public health messages......

This week I became ill this week with two separate infections that require some dynamite antibiotics to conquer them. When I say "dynamite"I am not referring only to their strength, but to their size and shape...... (MOTH thought they were pessaries...). Getting that first pill down past my infected tonsils was a challenge not unlike childbirth minus the epidural, but thankfully of a lot shorter duration :)

I always knew that my PC and I have a strong bond, but until this week I didn't know how strong... As my temperatures soared and I shivered, my PC came down with sympathy illness resulting in a fried motherboard. Panadol doesn't work with PCs... So while MOTH/NOTH* is fixing/rebuilding my PC he has set me up an account on the kids' PC and I am almost back to normal. I just have to wait for my turn :)

Meanwhile Turtle (DS7) has apparently taken on supervising the general health and wellbeing of the family:
T: "Mum, have you had your pap test?"
Me: "pap test?" (mind racing to work out where that question came from....)
T: "Yes, pap test, you should be having one every two years"
(his message delivered, Turtle leaves the kitchen and I pick up my jaw from the floor... and I realise with some relief that he has been paying attention to the current TV campaign, but that he probably doesn't actually know what it entails)

In other words, just another ordinary week in our house.

*NOTH = Nerd Of The House

a bit of photo fun

1. La Diosa Mari, 2. trini mangoes, 3. schola-osloensis, 4. ♫ YO Yo yo, there's no place like a green penthouse... so i told the genie i wanted to be well hung. ^o^ ♫ nah... wildlife from singapore♫, 5. Mark Harmon, 6. Ginger Ale?, 7. No title needed, 8. Moltekrem - Cloudberry with cream, 9. Perspective Matters, 10. Joy of life, 11. When Waves Collide, 12. My Norwegian Forest Cat

Sarah over at Simple Sunshine passed on a great game she had found and it looked like fun

so I gave it a go.

Here's how it works.

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name.

Astrology is not really my thing, but

if there is a planet of accidents, I am sure it's right over us at the moment....... this time it was LP's turn as she was bounced off the trampoline and landed on her elbow. At first we thought she'd just given it a good whack, but the fact that she wasn't talking much told me that she was not alright (this is the girl who does not stop talking except to eat and sleep). Time for another visit to the local Emergency Care where the dr had that "haven't I seen you before?" look.

LP has a fracture in her elbow, but was very lucky because it looks like the bit that is broken off has stayed in place and doesn't need pinning. At the moment the temporary cast is still on, but she'll get a full cast after a visit to the "bone doctor". In the meantime LP is quite pleased to finally have some Xrays of her own (go figure....)

Doodlebug Birthday!!

Last year we had the Mad Scientist party, but this year Doodlebug decided that his 9th Birthday was to be celebrated with a sleepover birthday party with his best friends. We went ahead with the planning, and what better date than Friday the 13th?

I failed in my mission as a recordkeeper and blogger since I didn't get a single photograph of the event - couldn't find my camera..... So I will just have to give a brief synopsis of the events.

The guests - 4 boys - were dropped off in the late afternoon, and we piled into Bertie Bus and went for a game of ten-pin bowling. We had two lanes, and the kids all had a blast. One group finished quite quickly and we started watching the boys in the other lane.

Lesson learned: "Do not take your eye off the ball" or, more to the point, balls... One enterprising guest decided to start his own game of bowling, by bowling all the balls from the rack down the empty lane, and he'd rolled about 8 down there before we noticed. The attendant was very helpful... I am nursing the hope that we're not the only ones to have caused a pile-up.

Next lesson learned: "Check dietary requirements of guests". I'd checked for allergies, but had completely missed the vegetarian, who also happened to be a very fussy eater. At home we had stacks of pizza waiting, but not even the plain cheesy one was tempting him. However, we aim to please, and Peter made him the meal of his choosing - a bowl of rice. The other party food we had also helped keep starvation at bay....

The boys had a blast scoffing food and watching a DVD before we sent them all off to bed in the living room for the next stage of the party - Nintendo playing. All boys had brought their DS'es and connected up to each other for a bit of Pokemon battling. After their allotted time, I collected all their consoles and chargers so they could wind down....... Sorry, did I say "wind down"? Doodlebug had been given a joke book as a present, and before long we heard laughing and giggling...... But eventually they started dropping off to sleep and all was quiet.

I thought after the late night they would be sleepy, but at the crack of dawn, they all went and reclaimed their consoles and continued playing in bed until the breakfast hunger pangs became too strong to ignore. It was a wonderful low-maintenance sort of celebration and the kids had a blast.